Method and Madness

I have neither the time nor inclination to address each and every one of my very good friend's points. But a couple:

"It has not been my experience that too many people sink the chest so much that they produce a rounded spine and/or a compressed diaphragm. On the other hand, I will start to look around and determine whether this is a reasonable assertion."

I have to imagine, Eric, that have I had a greater opportunity to see more people.

"As to the arms, letting the palms turn to face the rear and rest by the thigh and letting the elbows turn out to the side instead of facing to the rear, will, over the long haul, help to connect the arms to the spine. It will help the shoulders blades separate from the spine"

The palms will never, outside of misalignment, just "let themselves" face to the rear. This must be consciously done so. The arms can only connect to the shoulders, never to the spine. I find this to be just intentionally confusing rhetoric. I know the the "energetic" will be referenced but...well. I'll leave that one for now.

"We need to train it back into our systems. Is a Tai Chi form "unnatural" in its movements? Is walking the circle in Bagua an "unnatural" practice?"

Some practice only one, in some opinions, diluted, version of each of these systems. Others have had a much greater exposure.

"The teacher taught correctly. The student trained and learned incorrectly."

Or perhaps the teacher could only teach the limited amount he knew and the student practiced it correctly and found it wanting.

"In the end, it is true that our own practice develops and gives us our skill. But we do not live in a vacuum. Someone taught us something that we practiced. We did not make up all of this on our own just standing or sitting around. It is disingenuous to not acknowledge the ones who showed us the way to our practice and our skill, such as it is."

Sometimes one finds another teacher with a more complete and holistic method.

"Some, having chosen to go down a particular path or followed a particular practice, look back and decide they do not like the journey or the place where they have arrived. If one made the choice, should the blame fall solely on the teacher who tried to give guideposts for the journey, which may or may not have been followed? Some look for recognition that they may or may not deserve and, not receiving it, look elsewhere. Some of this gets to issues of karma, which are not easily resolved."

Karma, shmarma. Sometimes one's view of one's self enable one to deliver platitudes from castles in the air. Such castles may be made of sand.

" I have found it helpful to remember to accept the teacher and the teachings each for what they are."

I have found it helpful to develop an honest sense of inquiry and never accept, blindly, anything nor anyone. This passive aggressive stuff is fun.

I enjoyed your note very much. Several particularly excellent things to think on. Someone once said: The greatest "sin" against the law of continued upward growth is the lack of gratitude in one´s life. Agreements and disagreements always occur; illusions and disillusions also. The important think is the way one responds to everything that occurs. We can complain and criticize or we can go below the surface or behind the curtain, as one of my professors said in Med-school, and discover genuine creative thinking, based upon what was presented, and make real breakthroughs.....at least for ourselves. There can wisdom and useful knowledge almost everywhere if our heads are functioning well. It is still very true, that old refrain: No man is an island....in both senses. I suspect a good heart is also useful. It is the deepening of perception and experience through years of practicing and deepening our knowledge of what we are doing, itis this that not only is the proof of the pudding.......it is also very deeply satisfying. I think one of the valid symptons that we are going along well is that, as you well put it, we are not bored.

I am well over 70 and I am having a great time of it, with everything. I keep practicing, reading, listening, learning more and more and am enjoying all of it more and more. This thread has generated wide and interesting responses and I have been meaning to put in my 2-4 cents as a student of 30 years this month and a teacher for 24.

The first thing many of us have been taught is the 70% rule. It is often the first thing we forget. The expression is: "Full effort without strain." We are great at the former while the latter slips away. When I have had a problem it is usually because I have overdone something.

As to standing alignments, there are liftings and droppings in the body. They help maintain alignment so there is no compression from gravity in the body. Compression produces contraction and stagnation. If I don't counterbalance the sinking of the chest with the lifting of the spine from mingmen to the top of the head, then I will collapse the spine. I will compress the diaphragm. All the liftings and droppings create a counterbalance of stability. If I lifted too much in too many places, then the body will not naturally be able to sink and be rooted to the ground.

It has not been my experience that too many people sink the chest so much that they produce a rounded spine and/or a compressed diaphragm. On the other hand, I will start to look around and determine whether this is a reasonable assertion.

As to the arms, letting the palms turn to face the rear and rest by the thigh and letting the elbows turn out to the side instead of facing to the rear, will, over the long haul, help to connect the arms to the spine. It will help the shoulders blades separate from the spine. It will help create space and dropping in the shoulders nest. It will maintain opening in the armpits. It will aid in the softening and sinking of the chest. It will help to create a neutral and comfortable stance. If someone has very tight shoulders and turned the palms to the rear without releasing the shoulders and connecting to the spine, then they would probably aggravate the tightness in the shoulders. Only turning the elbows to the side could close the armpit and shoulders. This would be enforcing one alignment to the detriment of the others. Using the elbows to connect the arms to the spine is part of "Sink the shoulders and drop the elbows" from the Tai Chi Classics.

This is, after all, a standing posture just like all the other ones. I don't always understand the point of "natural posture," as if it was something different from what we practice. The body has a natural range of motion. Often it has lost this. We need to train it back into our systems. Is a Tai Chi form "unnatural" in its movements? Is walking the circle in Bagua an "unnatural" practice? While we need to train the body to do these things well and effectively, the body is nevertheless naturally capable of doing them. I do not mean to suggest that there is no merit in body practices that promote "natural" movement or alignments. I just don't think they are the end of the story. I have read Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen's, Sensing, Feeling and Action, and Andre Bernard's, Ideokinesis, and found them both useful and insightful.

There are many standing postures. They do different things to the body. They open up certain parts of the body that others do not. They make energy rise; they make it sink. They make energy project out; they absorb energy in. I Chuan has made a whole practice out of them. They train skills of the body. But all of them must be practiced without strain or tension.

There has also been discussion of dropping the tailbone and whether this is useful or natural. The idea is that there is a dropping from mingmen that falls through the lower spine (opening the lower vertebrae) and continues through the tailbone and pelvis and then penetrates the legs to the bubbling well points. Another way of describing this is there is a threading of the joints down to the feet and floor. I have not personally experienced any problem with this practice. I feel more rooted and connected to the ground when I do it than just standing and maintaining the "natural" curve of the lower spine. This dropping must come from softening and relaxation. It cannot be forced. Two things help dropping the tailbone: lifting in the kwa so the pelvis is not compressed and wrapping the pelvis forward, which gives space in the sacroiliac joints for the tailbone to comfortably drop and the lower spine to flatten. Forcing this alignment of the lower
body is no different than holding the chest and living with the tension that creates.

There has been an element in this thread of shooting the messenger that I don't quite understand. I practiced something and it created a problem. It might be that I was practicing something I learned that was not useful. Occasionally this is something we have to learn the hard way. It may be that I was not practicing according to what I was taught. Many students hear only what they want to hear and practice only the part they are capable of. When the teacher says "Do A, B, and C," they only fixate and practice B and soon forget the rest of the instruction. If I was taught something useful and the way I practiced created problems, then that is the fault of the student, not the teacher. The teacher taught correctly. The student trained and learned incorrectly.

Sinking the chest by holding the chest and/or not raising the spine, so that it creates tension in the body, is not following the instruction. Who is to blame? Maybe blame is the wrong word. At least if someone came to understand what he were doing is wrong, then they still learned something useful.

In the end, it is true that our own practice develops and gives us our skill. But we do not live in a vacuum. Someone taught us something that we practiced. We did not make up all of this on our own just standing or sitting around. It is disingenuous to not acknowledge the ones who showed us the way to our practice and our skill, such as it is. Is the most efficient way of learning to drive having someone hand you the keys to a car and tell you to get in the car and start to drive? Someone has showed us the way. We should be grateful, if it was a journey worth taking. Some don't like where the journey takes them and become resentful, a common, but not necessarily mature, reaction.

Some, having chosen to go down a particular path or followed a particular practice, look back and decide they do not like the journey or the place where they have arrived. If one made the choice, should the blame fall solely on the teacher who tried to give guideposts for the journey, which may or may not have been followed? Some look for recognition that they may or may not deserve and, not receiving it, look elsewhere. Some of this gets to issues of karma, which are not easily resolved.

Why am I still a student after all these years? I continue to find the instructions valuable. Even when some things have been heard before, they make more sense with the passage of time. Sometimes I do not think that the instruction goes where I want the ground to be covered. Sometimes something is given that I did not expect.

But I am not yet bored. I feel I am in a better place for having learned these things. I have watched how many interesting friends who share these practices have grown and matured. I also came to the realization a long time ago that the messenger and the message are not the same thing. It has been my experience that some cannot make this separation and they go elsewhere. But, more often than not, when they make complaints, it is about the teacher and not about the instruction. I have found it helpful to remember to accept the teacher and the teachings each for what they are.

Perhaps it should not matter, but in that your are well my senior, I feel I have treated you with a lack of respect. And for that, I apologize. I know its nothing at all to do with me but I feel I have to say, nice one Buddy. Compared to you, at 52, I am but a pup, a dog whose bark is worse than his bite. But thank you for accepting my apology. One does not get to your years without life thrusting a certain amount of wisdom on you. I have followed this thread about alignments with some bemusement. Maybe it's just me, but I've never taken anything I've been told by teachers about alignments too literally. The only times I've injured myself since taking up the internal arts, is when I've forced myself (through over-enthusiasm, vanity, or wanting to impress) to copy too literally what a teacher was demonstrating or telling me what to do, thus forgetting the 70% rule. For this I cannot blame my teachers, although it's only human nature, when one is quite advanced in one's art, to forget that others' bodies are not as open as yours.

To take just one example, when I first began standing I tried to do so with my palms facing backward, but found it completely unnatural and forced. Now that my shoulders are considerably more mobile, I notice that my hands fall naturally into that stance, and in doing so, lengthen and lift the spine. In my first every Qi Gong lesson, I was told (by a BFK teacher) to tuck the pelvis. Not a good idea if your discs are already compressed in the sacrum! However now (after 12 years practice) my lower verterbrae relax, separate and drop of their own accord, and I've ended up in the same place. Should I have been taught better? Or did I only hear what I wanted to hear in my rush to become a 'master', thus ignoring the precautions that were probably given at the same time?

The first time I took a bagua class (with another BFK teacher) the teacher urged me to do a 'shoulder-loosening' exercise which fucked up my shoulder so bad it took me a year to recover.

Whatever, I'm with Eric on this one. Teachers are only human too.

However, if Buddy will forgive me, I must raise the issue of energetics here. Surely the 'right' alignment (for instance, in tai chi) is the one which allows you, within the parameters and logic of a movement, to move chi most easy and naturally. This will vary according to ability, openness and body type, and will change over time. Although it is important to be corrected regularly, since we can be blind to our own mistakes, at the same time we have our own internal guide as long as we follow the principles of the nei-gung.

Besides, you only have to trawl through youtube to realise that many 'great masters' practice their forms in a way that just looks 'all wrong'! In the end, it's what's going on internally that's important.